proper nature of this measure, as corresponding to our modern _march-time_ in music, has been pointed out by Müller;[f9] and in conformity with his views, I have, in my translation, accurately marked the distinction, in the AGAMEMNON, the SUPPLIANTS, and the PERSIANS, between the Anapæstic verses sung by the Chorus to march-time, when entering the Orchestra, and the regular odes or hymns sung after they were arrived at their proper destination round the Thymele. But how are we to render this verse in English? Our own Anapæstic verse, though the same when counted by the fingers, has, if I mistake not, a light, ambling, unsteady air about it, which is quite the reverse of the weighty character of the "equal rhythm," as the ancients called both it and its counterpart the Dactylic.[f10] I have, therefore, thought myself safer in using, for this measure, the Trochaic verse of eight syllables, varied with occasional sevens and fives, generally without rhyme, in the AGAMEMNON with a few rhymes irregularly interspersed. In the Persians only I have made the experiment, tried also by Connington in the Agamemnon, of rendering the Greek by the common English Anapæsts; the delicate-treading (ἁβροβάται) sons of Susa not seeming to require the same weight and firmness of diction for their sad vaticinations, as the stout-hearted Titan for his words of haughty defiance, and the Herald of the Thunderer for his threats. With regard to the proper choral odes--the most difficult, and, in my view, the most important part of my task--I have allowed myself a licence, which some may think too large, but which, if I were to do the work over again, I scarcely think I should contract. In very few cases have I given anything like a curious imitation of the original; and, when I have done so--as in the Trochaic Chaunt of the FURIES, p. 157, and in the Cretics mingled with Trochees, in the short ode of the SUPPLIANTS, p. 232[f11]--it was more to humour the whim of the moment than from any fixed principle. For, to speak truth, rhyming men will have their whim; and I do not think it politic or judicious to deprive the translator altogether of that rhythmical freedom which is the great delight of the original composer. {8} But another, and the principal reason with me for not attempting a systematic imitation of the choral measures, was, that many of them failed to produce, on my ear, an intelligible musical effect, which I could set myself to reproduce; while, in other cases, though I clearly saw the _rhythmical principle_ on which they were constructed (for I do not speak of the blind jargon of inherited _metrical terminology_), I saw with equal clearness _that in our English poetry written to be read, systematic imitation of ancient metres written on musical principles, and with a view to musical exhibition, is, in the majority of cases, altogether absurd and impertinent_. I confined myself, therefore, to the